This module is an introduction to the growing field of popular music and dance studies and will give the student an overview of some of the important features of these contemporary practices as well as current areas and modes of research in this context. The investigations presented in these modules will be particularly informed by the international disciplines of Arts practice research. Students here will also be introduced to responsible and accountable academic and research practices

In this module students will be introduced to the academic field of popular music and dance studies, examining popular music and dance movements, particularly those relevant to Irish contexts. Here students will seek to develop a vocabulary to think, talk, and write about the world of popular music/song/dance in order that we might better understand the purpose, meaning, and values associated with its forms. By examining case studies and key writings about popular music, song, and dance, students are introduced to the theoretical models developed within the field to account for the development of popular music and dance (and the very concept of 'popular' itself), the role of commodification in popular arts and how that shapes its aesthetics, and the meaning of popular forms in identity politics and in our everyday lives. Students will be develop writing and presentation skills associated with such academic engagement and be introduced to concepts of research as a creative, scholarly practice.

- Identify, analyse, and appraise popular forms - Contextualise developments in popular genres in relation to socio-historical and political trends - draw upon a more extensive disciplinary vocabulary - Generate responsible academic writing in an acceptable scholarly style

- reflect critically on the creative and technological processes involved - Initiate an engagement with research as a creative scholarly practice

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This module will be taught through a mixture of lectures, tutorials and performance based laboratories. It will have traditional academic outcomes supplemented by an arts practice approach, giving the subject area an embodied relevance. As such this module has UL graduate attributes at it's core, focusing on knowledge based outputs supplemented with a embodied experience rooted in collaborative creative practice. Students will be able to articulate their understanding of popular music and dance in a culturally engaged and responsible manner.